140 years selling sashes and shawls: Barcelona loses one of the oldest shops in the Gothic quarter

BarcelonaA few minutes after opening the doors, the shop's lobby fills with customers. "They are friends, coming to say goodbye," explains Glòria Vives, manager of Magatzems del Pilar, at number 43 on Carrer de la Boqueria, and representative of the fifth generation at the head of this iconic establishment in the heart of the Gothic Quarter. With 140 years of history, the family-run business selling artisanal textile goods will close its doors for good this Friday.

"It's a timely retirement," describes Vives, who explains that this school year she has resumed her profession as a mathematics teacher. It is the trade she left twenty years ago to take on the responsibility of the shop, and which now, at 52, she has decided to return to in the face of the growing difficulties for small businesses, such as the rise of shopping online. The same difficulties that drive the next generations away from the business. For this reason, for two months, she has been balancing teaching with hours at the shop, juggling to serve the last customers and clear out stock.

Assumpció Quevedo, mother of Vives and former manager of the store, is also at the Gothic Quarter premises these days, one of the very few remaining on Carrer de la Boqueria that is not specifically aimed at tourists. She gets emotional with the gifts and words of gratitude from the customers and neighbors who come to say goodbye: "People are what make me happiest. They are not customers, they are friends."

Magatzems del Pilar does not go unnoticed. Amidst souvenirs and takeaway food establishments, two large signs and a shop window full of colors invite you to enter and get to know an iconic establishment firsthand. Its beginnings date back to 1886, but it was not until 1913 that Vives' ancestors acquired the store, where they had served as apprentices, and settled to live on the floor above with part of the family. Thus, behind the displays of fabrics and mannequins, they have seen the history of Barcelona pass by, from wars to pandemics. "I have been very lucky to spend my life around this business," celebrates Vives.

For decades, Magatzems del Pilar has been a reference point for both the family and the neighborhood. "I found out they were closing when I was on vacation and it was a hard blow," recalls Joan Pozo, one of those customers who is now a friend. Pozo used to buy pieces of clothing from them, but he also often stopped by the shop simply to visit them because he knew he would feel "as if he were part of the family."

For Pozo, the value of the business goes beyond the unique products or its 140 years of history: "The most valuable thing about these walls is the two of them," he asserts, referring to Vives and Quevedo. Their closeness is, in his opinion, one of the great losses that the Gothic Quarter will suffer. "The first day you went in looking for a sash or a shawl and you left feeling like a distant cousin," he jokes. He also laments the loss of a business that kept alive "the spirit of Barcelona in the nerve center of the capital of Catalonia." "I wish Barcelona did not have to see more businesses like this one close," he concludes.

A centennial business

The business has stood out for artisanal items of all kinds, many intended for the home, but also for dressing Catalan popular culture. Eloi Casanovas, a regular customer and member of the Monistrol de Montserrat giants troupe, emphasizes the knowledge and detail of Quevedo and Vives in crafting custom-made sashes. But their bond goes much further, as it was they who taught him to sew, when as a young man he would go to the shop to buy fabrics to learn.

On Friday, a historic shop in the Gothic Quarter will close, another loss of a centenary establishment in Barcelona. But far from melancholy, the family takes this new stage with optimism, emotion, and satisfaction for the legacy of Magatzems del Pilar and the friends who will remain.